All Dutch people can download CoronaMelder, the official corona app from the government, since the beginning of this week. Plus readers are not yet doing that en masse: 56 percent plan to install the app. This is apparent from a poll on this site among more than 6100 Plus readers.
Whoever has the app can be warned if he or she has been in contact with someone who has corona. Until September 1, the application will not work optimally for everyone. CoronaMelder is initially being tested in Drenthe, Overijssel and parts of Gelderland, but because the app cannot only be released in those regions, everyone throughout the country can already put it on their phone.
Not on my conscience
Plus readers who respond positively to CoronaMelder mainly want to prevent them from infecting others with the corona virus. “I believe that as a citizen you have a duty to make an effort to ensure that no citizens are infected with this virus through your negligence,” reader Math responds under the poll.Every sick person is one too many,” writes Piet Dierx.
Old phone
But 44 percent of Plus readers also indicate that they are not going to download the app. A common reason is simply that it is technically not possible. The app against corona does not work for people with an iPhone 6 or older devices. Some Plus readers do want to, but get stuck on technical problems.
Another reason that is often mentioned: ‘I don’t always have my phone with me.’ And some readers do not see the added value of the app at all: “I stick to the rules of one and a half meters and don’t go to crowded places. I think the app is a bit nonsense,” André writes, for example.
Viewed
The fact that CoronaMelder is a so-called ‘tracking app’ is also not well received by everyone. Even though the app works without location and personal data, according to Plus reader Van den Broek it remains ‘an unpleasant idea’. “I feel watched anyway, albeit anonymously.”
teething problems
And then there is a group of people who wait a little while ‘until the teething problems are gone’. José responds: “I expect that a useful and hopefully safe app can emerge in the long term.”
Downloads
Within one day, CoronaMelder was downloaded a total of more than 100,000 times from the Google Play Store. The figures for iOS are as yet unknown, but there the app was in the top three of most popular apps all day.
All responses from Plus Readers can be found at the bottom of this article.
In response to the many questions, we have listed a number of answers. You will find them here.
